CNBC names waitress winner of stock picking contest

An Ohio waitress was named the winner of CNBC’s Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge contest designed to increase traffic to its web site as the business news cable network disqualified others who had finished ahead of her for manipulating their results.

CNBC web editor Mark Koba wrote, “Mary Sue Williams has been a waitress at Undo’s family restaurant in St. Clairsville for nine years. She says she will continue to work as will her husband who is a cook at the local Denny’s. She says she noticed people leaving her smaller tips recently when they read about her in the local papers as a contestant. ‘They thought I had won. I’ll have to see what they leave me now, now that I actually have won,’ said Williams. Williams is a native of California and at one time was a welder.

“The CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge began on March 5th with some 375,000 people entering. Contestants each started out with $1 million CNBC ‘Bucks’, to invest in stocks. The finals started on May 14th and consisted of weekly winners–those who had the highest percentage gain for a given week–as well as ten others who had the highest portfolio values. Each weekly winner will receive $10,000. The contest officially ended on May 25th.

“The announcement of the winner was delayed because of an investigation into certain trading actions during the contest finals. According to CNBC VP of Communications Kevin Goldman, several individuals were disqualified in accordance with the contest rules.”

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